My latest funny/slightly embarrassing story.

This past weekend we had a youth leader retreat at one of the church staff member's houses. Super cool house on a small lake...huge windows, lots of trees...really neat. Because the house is pretty secluded there weren't any curtains on any of the windows...always makes me a little nervous but I figure if they can live there full time, I can spend one night right? Anyway...so after our evening sessions are over, we have game/free time for the rest of the evening. While I'm not a stay up late person at all, somehow I found myself with the night owls playing cards. Come 2am I decide I'm not going to be a happy camper or able to make breakfast for all these people in the morning if I don't go to bed ASAP.

I decide I should take a shower before bed because (1) I don't want to have to wake up any earlier than I have to & (2) I smell a little like smoke from the fire we built outside. I get my stuff & head into this huge master bathroom...a queen size bed could fit in here people!...the shower is situated in such a way that while there is no door or shower curtain, it's enough "around a corner" that I feel mostly safe. So keep in mind...no shower curtain, also no curtains on the ceiling level windows. I decide to commit. Now comes the task of figuring out how to turn the shower on...there are 5 shower heads. Five! One up top like a normal shower head & four aiming straight out from the walls. There are two handles...one appears to be the one used to adjust the water from hot to cold & the other just turns around in a circle & nothing happens. After pulling, turning & tugging on both of them I finally get water to come out of the top shower head. I adjust it to the right temperature....so far so good. I hurry because there's so many windows in there & it is 2:20-ish by now.

Suddenly I realize I don't know how to turn the shower off. I turn the handle that spins around & water comes out of each of the 5 shower heads....one at a time...whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...up top...whoosh. No matter how many times I turn it the water just keeps coming from every angle. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...up top...whoosh. I can adjust it's temperature with the other handle but can't for the life of my turn it off. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...up top...whoosh. I see the clock...2:30...the thought goes through my mind...could I just leave it on? Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...up top...whoosh. Surely not that much water would be wasted in the next few hours till someone else gets up who can figure this out. But my competitive side told me failure was not an option & I had to figure this out. I keep turning handles....whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...up top...whoosh. I'm laughing and frustrated but don't know what else to do! I push at the handles in frustration & they turn off!...the temperature handle just needed to be pushed in...apparently I'd pulled it out to turn the water on initially, but I have no recollection of this. Relief washes over me (get it...washes...shower...whoosh..)...I can finally go to bed now. As tired as I was I did laugh about the whole event for a while...even while lying in bed...it was funny!

That's my story! And...it's my half birthday today! Happy Half Birthday to me!

A December to Remember

Are there really only 2 days left till 2010? Holy cow! This month has been jam-packed! It feels like Thanksgiving was just last week but in a few short days this whole year will be over!

Probably the best thing about this month has been all the time with family--my immediate fam & extended too! My sweet Grandma Betsy passed away the week after Thanksgiving so I've spent quite a bit of this past month in Houston with my mom & Aunt Libby. My grandmother was a great woman and I will miss her a lot! My mom & aunt are two of the most Godly women I know--they have done so much to take care of my grandma over the last several years. In lieu of a funeral a small gathering (of about 40 people) was held at my grandma's house December 16 & it was really like a going away party instead of a funeral. In addition to our family the 6 or so women who took full time care of my grandma all were there as well as some long time neighbors. Several people shared about how wise, faithful, generous, patient and genteel my grandmother was. And many of them talked about what a blessing her children were to her. It was very honoring to my grandmother as well as my mom, aunt & uncle & was overall a blessing for all of us! The "gathering" or "party" as we liked to call it was held a few days after my cousins Lee & Adam came in from Washington DC & the day before Adam left again to move overseas. All the cousins don't get to see each other a lot so it was an added blessing to get to spend time with them!

Christmas was about a week later & so down to Corpus we all went! Bonnie & I went down a day early & she & I along with our parents went downtown to hear a friend's band play. We had such a good time! If you know my parents, you know their dachshunds Noel & Pama. Well they puppy sat for a friend's 8 week old lab/border collie mix for the few days we were there. "Marley" was 100% puppy! He was confined to the kitchen at all times as he loved to chew & pee on everything! He would try to play with Pama (Noel the grouchy old lady stayed far far away) & she would just cower as he swatted at her. He was bigger than they were & we had to remind Pama that she didn't have to stay in the kitchen--she was a big girl & could go in the living room. They were all 3 very silly dogs. Here's the best pic with all three--

Marley modeling the dog snuggie, Pama (the black one) with her tail between her legs & Noel in the bed facing the other way. This was a rare & very supervised moment for Marley to be in the den.

The day after Christmas we headed back to Houston where the Matthews were going to be heading as well. It was a fun few days before Lee headed back to DC. We too some fun pics in front of my grandma's house in attempts to recreate some old ones--

c. 1988

2009--man I wish I still had that ukulele!

2007

2009

And remember that picture of Lee, Adam, Bonnie & I at the beginning? It was taken in our grandma's kitchen a couple weeks ago. Here we are in the late 80's in her living room--

Aren't these fun?

Tomorrow my 5th year college roommates, Katy & Lynn are coming to town! And then another trip to Houston & Corpus before the year ends! I am a pro-traveler! :) Happy last week of '09!

Nativity Dance.

A very funny video! I don't know why this is so big--double click & it'll take you to youtube where you can watch it full screen.

Next to opening presents, decorating the tree is the best part of Christmas! --Eloise at Christmastime

I love Christmastime! I love everything about it--the cold, wearing jackets & sweaters, buying gifts, wrapping gifts, and holiday beverages from Starbucks! And I absolutely love Christmas decorations! This year I traded in my Charlie Brown tree for a 6ft pre-lit one (totally worth it)! And believe it or not I actually have enough ornaments to fill it!

In case you can't see my tree-skirt down there...

I started making it last year & mostly finished it before Christmas but realized when I pulled it out this year, some of the snow flakes were held on with safety pins. So I finished it & am pretty pleased with how it turned out! I saw one in Pottery Barn that looked very similar & decided I could do it myself at a fraction of the price! Anyway, I love it! And here's some of my favorite ornaments...

Snow flake.

Holly! My first ornament (so my mom tells me).

Sparkly pink purse.

Roses from my debutante days.

Red cup from Starbucks!

Love this polka dot H! I think my friend Dawn gave me this a few years ago.

OK last picture...this is what I see walking down my hallway everyday. There's a mirror on the wall that catches the reflection of the tree in the living room. I love getting to "see" it before I actually see it! :)

Happy Christmastime!

giving thanks.

Went to H-town for Thanksgiving. We had about 20 come to Grandma's house for lunch--a delicious smoked Turkey & all the yummy sides you can imagine! My personal favorite was the sweet potatoes with marshmallows! I think I was the only one who ate them, but that was ok--more for me! :) It was a great few days--shopping with my sister, eating LOTS of food & just getting to hang out with my family!

One great story--Bonnie & I went to Anthropologie (one of our favorite stores!) Wednesday afternoon when I got to Houston & of course the first place we go is the sale closet in the back--we get several good things to try on & trade most of them back & forth between our two dressing rooms. The ladies who worked in the dressing room were getting quite a kick out of us & asked what sizes we wanted & then said they'd go back & get whatever was in the "back closet"--(Bonnie & I dubbed it "the secret closet")--whenever there was only 1-2 of an item left they had to take it off the floor. So she comes back with a huge pile of clothes of things that were marked down to like $10! It was awesome! We both tried almost everything on--laughing so much & just having an absolute blast! Best day at Anthopologie ever!

Well I definitely have a lot to be thankful for! Not just great sales at Anthro! My wonderful family is the biggest blessing in my life! My parents, Bonnie & Robert helped me so much this year with the whole home-buying & moving process. I definitely could not have done it with out them! I have great friends & a fantastic job--the Lord has provided more than I could ask or imagine through it. I have a lot to be thankful for indeed. Here's some pics from this weekend.

Bon & I

Silly Grobes.

Whoop! Ready to go to the game!

The fam.

This Old House

Any day now Operation: New Bathrooms will begin! While there's so many pros to owning an old home, there are also some cons! Not really cons, but challenges--opportunities to build character right? Only one of the 2 bathrooms in my house has a shower & a few weeks ago I discovered is has a leaky shower pan. The only way to fix this requires the entire thing to be torn out & rebuilt. So while one bathroom is being ripped up why not do the other one right? The other bathroom in my house is only a bathtub. It has a window in it & is lined with fake tile. It was in the list of things to re-do around the house someday. Well that day is quickly approaching. A lot of people have asked if I'm going to do it myself. Seriously? No way.

Shower with leaky shower pan.

Bathtub with a window in it, fake tile & no shower head.

Because the floors are already black & white, both the standup shower & the bath/shower will be tiled in white tile with a black & white checked accent border. Pretty basic. Kevin the tile guy is supposed to start tearing things out this week & hopefully will start tiling/rebuilding during the week of Thanksgiving. I'm super excited to have TWO working bathrooms in a couple of weeks! If buying a house didn't make me feel like a real grown up, remodeling two bathrooms surely does! :)

Fun group pics.

If you know anything about my former life (with Worldview) one of the things I loved to do was organize group pictures. It was the highlight of my Monday morning each week. Last night we decided to take a group pic to send to Mwangi, the Compassion boy we sponsor in Africa. They turned out pretty good--notice it's the college boys (the leaders!) in the back that are the ones misbehaving.


And of course, a silly picture...


Aren't these kids precious? Those are my 7th grade girlies in the front left--I just love them!

Oh and an update on the "Big Dance" that I blogged about a few weeks ago...one of our youth leaders created a facebook event for the performance next weekend...so far over 400 confirmed attending and over 700 maybes. This thing may be out of control, but it's going to be awesome!!

Halloween

I got to go to Midland this past weekend to see friends & visit my old stompin' grounds. :) Bad weather in Houston delayed my flight from an 8:45pm departure to an 11:45pm departure! Fortunately it was a direct flight & so I arrived in Midland a little after 1am. My sweet friend Sarah picked me up despite a stomach bug she was battling! But thankfully she was able to take the day off on Friday & we both slept in & watched tv until mid-afternoon when we got up to go have a late lunch with another friend & then got ready for a party our friend Caroline was having that night!

Sarah & I on our way to lunch.

Sarah, Dawn & I had decided to be "3 Peas in a Pod" for the party. Sarah & Dawn did an awesome job putting the costumes together! We stuffed some really big green shirts with HEB & Walmart bags & Dawn's mom made us a pod that put the finishing touches on our costumes!

3 Peas in a Pod

The best thing about our costumes was that they were so un-flattering that it completely freed us up to eat as much as we wanted! Or at least that was my favorite part of it! :) The party was fun & everyone had great costumes on!

Me & Hilary (Hi Hilary!)

Me & Caroline

Peas, bacon, eggs & a hotdog!

Bert, Ernie & 3 Peas in a Pod

Even though it was a super quick trip, it was super fun! I sure was blessed with good friends out in West Texas!

Braidy Bunch.

It is hard to take a picture of the back of your head! Inspired by Laurie, I tried a new braid today & am pretty pleased with the results. I pretty much just want to be like Laurie.

I don't remember it raining this much in College Station when I lived here 3 years ago. I feel like it rains a little everyday. And when it's not raining it's so humid it might as well be raining. So there's no use in trying to straighten my hair. A braid & pony are perfect solutions but I fear that I feel like people in my office are thinking "does she know how to do anything else with her hair?" I'm always game for a new idea! Thanks Laurie!

October so far.

This past weekend I went to Corpus to celebrate my grandpa's 84th birthday! Even though it was a quick trip it was a good time & beautiful weather! I had lunch with my parents & Pop at Brewster Street Ice House which is right under the Harbor Bridge, next to Whataburger Field--it was a gorgeous day to be down town near the water!

My Parents

Me & Pop

Last week my little 7th grade girlies & I played around with Photo Booth on my MacBook. The little hamster in the corner named Hammy & he's a mascot of sorts for our junior high ministry.

Also this month, my roommates & I busted out the fire pit in the back yard! It's been raining so much it that hadn't been dry enough to start a fire but we had a couple of dry days in a row a while back & we made the most of it!

Dottie gave a valiant effort to start the fire--it took a while but
she persevered & it was a major success!

Sarah & Rachel eat some s'mores!

Me & Dottie love s'mores too!

Griffin just wants someone to pay attention to him.

"The Big Dance"

I feel like I need something to update on in order to be motivated to blog. Well I have a project now! There's this big youth event in December that all the kids dress up for & we watch videos that have been made using youth kids & leaders. They're competing for the best of a certain category. We (youth staff) make up the categories, put together the videos & pick the winners and apparently it's a pretty big deal (this being my first year working here I haven't actually seen this deal yet, just heard all about it). So a few weeks ago we started thinking about different videos to make & I showed this video & said maybe we could do something like this.



Well, apparently it was a good idea because today we had our first practice session & had about 75 people show up! Our goal is at least 100 & I have no doubt we'll get there. Two people left practice & took the music with them so they could teach all the leaders in the Bible study they direct who will in turn teach their group members. If just 25 more people come we'll get there! The first place this will be done is the half time show of a local Christian school football game October 24. The principal & coaches gave us their blessing to be the half time entertainment. The second time--get ready for this--will be outside Kyle Field a couple hours before the kick off of the A&M-Baylor game on November 21.

Like I said, today was just our first practice but I was super pleased with the turn out & the excitement people had for this event! Here's a video of our performance. I think it was the first time we tried to have people be in lines, so you can see it still needs a lot of work. But I am confident it's going to be awesome. Hopefully people will practice this week & we'll have even more people at next week's practice. :)



If you're in the B/CS area & want to be a part of this--it's all being filmed mind you--and not just by me--they actual performances will have real videographers--if you want to be part of this, let me know or just show up at the Grace gym next Sunday, 3pm.

5 things that make me laugh.

I like to take pictures of things that make me laugh. Most of the time these are taken with my phone & I never do anything with them. I was looking though my phone pics the other day & realized there were some funny ones (at least I think they're funny) in there!

Man-pris (man-gauchos...manchos? mauchos?).
I spent several days at Starbucks meeting with people & this guy came in everyday. And everyday he wore these same gaucho style pants--in black, in dark green & in denim. They made me laugh.

Toddler hockey.
Yes, folks this is real. There's an ice hockey league for tots.

Griffin.
This is what my roommate's dog does when I put a baby gate up in my doorway so he won't come in.

Griffin again.
Sometimes when he's looking out the front window his head gets so heavy he has to rest it on the couch.

When people put luggage tags on their kids.
This is actually my friend's kid...and it was her 5 year old's idea to tag the toddler when they flew cross country. Not a bad idea actually.

Harry Potter Theme Park!

Who's up for a vacay in Spring 2010?

http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-29692008

Got a Little Update for you Ags.

Tonight is our first Axis (Wednesday night youth group meeting)! My new job at Grace is mostly working with junior high students who meet at the church on Wednesday nights to play games, break into small groups and study Ephesians this year. Over the last couple of weeks (I'm already in week 3 of the job!) I've gotten to meet with several of the leaders & get to know them & what they're looking forward to this year in ministry. Last night was our first leader's meeting and it was so exciting to all be in the same room, getting excited together about what the Lord is going to do this year in the lives of these kids and us as leaders! There are about 30 leaders on our campus (the church has another campus with about 10 leaders I think).

Tonight (yes, tonight!) we're breaking the kids into groups to do skits using random characters, locations, events and conflicts that we give them. Can't you just see 7th grade boys portraying Gisele (from "Enchanted") at the dog races on Christmas morning being chased by ninjas? I can't wait!

So there's a little update for you. It strays a little from my usual youtube/picture posts. Look at me, I'm growing. :)

The house is good. Still coming together. Boxes are all unpacked, but things aren't in their final resting places necessarily. Not much is on the walls. If anyone has any ideas of what to put on a wall behind a red & white checkered couch please let me know. My roommate got a dog, Griffin the Boxer. He's real sweet & not too smart. He likes to chase his tail but then he gets dizzy & it's real funny. We played "Tunnel of Doom" the other night (one person lay down in the hall way & we threw his toy down the hall to see if he'd run over the person). He does a giant leap over whatever is in his way & it's hilarious. We put pillows down & other things next to us, trying to make a bigger pile & he still leaps over. Way funny.

I'm off to get a little snack before tonight. Hope you all have a good one!

Ice Cream & Cake!

At first this was annoying to me, but then I realized that this is pretty much what's going on on the inside when I eat ice cream & cake. :) Watch it at least twice. You should laugh too.

Summer 2009: Top Ten in Pictures

There are so many intangible things I learned and experienced this summer but those are hard to describe/illustrate. Here are my top ten tangible experiences in pictures. After trying unsuccessfully to rate them, I decided to just put them in geographic order.

1. "The Wives"

Liv, Linda, Laurie & Regina.
The wives of the faculty & camp director are some of my dearest friends. This is from one of our "girls nights".

2. America Girl Place--Chicago

I've never seen so many dolls or doll friendly activities! It was like doll Disneyworld! My friend Alysia & I went to see the doll hair salon, cafe, art studio, store & more! Everything there came in human size & doll size--crazy, but so cool! And I can't figure out how to turn this picture, sorry!

3. Eat.Shop.Chicago.

My friend Laurie got a book called Eat.Shop.Chicago. & so we took the train into Chicago to eat & shop! We ate a delicious lunch at a fancy little place called Blackbird, got some yummy pastries & coffee at a local place (can't remember the name) and shopped some way overpriced boutiques. I only came away with (aside from a full tummy) these awesomely huge sunglasses! The only pictures we took were on the train home--a funny montage including the one above.

4. Buying a house while driving through Chicago traffic.

I didn't take this picture, it was taken by one of the other vehicles driving through the same traffic. It was on this day & in this traffic that the house buying adventure began!

5. Niagara Falls

The girl staff.

In line for the boat--we got these sweet ponchos!

Cara & I on the "Maid of the Mist" approaching Niagara Falls. It was awesome--totally worth the price of the ticket!

6. York Beach, Maine

The super crowded York beach.

Cara & I got some "wicked good" ice cream!

The Hubble Lighthouse--this picture doesn't do it justice--it was beautiful!

7. Lobster in Massachusetts

The "wives" & I had a delicious lobster dinner at Liv's parents house in Massachusetts. The whole process--buying, attempting to race them across the floor (they were mostly dead & didn't really race), steaming & eating them (every little bit of them) was awesome!

8. New York City

We took the staff to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway!

9. Lancaster, PA

My friend Aubree lives near Lancaster & so came to spend a couple days with me at camp. She & I went & had lunch in an old train car & saw some of the Amish country.

We climbed to the top of this scenic tower to take some cool pictures--unfortunately we couldn't get the scenery & us at the same time.

10. Skeet Shooting in Virginia

We had lunch at one of the staff guy's houses & went skeet shooting afterwards. I am proud to say I hit all three pidgins! I also hit 2 out of 3 targets with an AK47. I'd take credit but I'm pretty my shooting abilities come from my momma (who was on the riflery team at Univ. of Texas), so I have to say it's in my blood.